The survival of the question : Simon Wiesenthal's The sunflower

Peter Banki

    Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

    Abstract

    In 1969, Simon Wiesenthal, already internationally recognized for his work in the Documentation Center of the Association of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime in Vienna, published an autobiographical narrative based on an exceptional encounter between himself and a dying, repentant Nazi soldier. On his deathbed this soldier confessed to Wiesenthal that he had participated in the murder of hundreds of Jews (including children) and asked Wiesenthal—at the time himself a prisoner in a concentration camp in Poland—for his forgiveness. Responding at the time with silence, Wiesenthal confessed nonetheless to being haunted by the dying man’s request, unable to put the matter to rest, both during the period he was interned in the camps as well as afterwards. Convinced of the importance of what he had experienced, he sent the narrative, entitled The Sunflower : A Story of Guilt and Forgiveness, to a number of distinguished figures of public life, including theologians, writers, philosophers, politicians and religious leaders. The published text includes their responses.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationTerror and the Roots of Poetics
    EditorsJeffrey R. Champlin
    Place of PublicationU.S.A.
    PublisherAtropos
    Pages110-138
    Number of pages29
    ISBN (Print)9780985304256
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

    Keywords

    • forgiveness
    • Holocaust, 1939-1945
    • Wiesenthal, Simon. Sonnenblume
    • Wiesenthal, Simon. Sunflower

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